Parques de Sintra records a 21.65% rise in 2017 visitor numbers

In 2017, the parks and monuments under the management of Parques de Sintra welcomed close to 3.2 million visitors (3,193,287), which represents a year-on-year rise of 21.65% and confirms the rising trend registered over the preceding years.

The Park and National Palace of Pena once again proved the single most sought after destination with a total of 1,685,964 entrances, thus ranking as the most visited palace in the country with a 27.7% surge on 2016 figures.

The proportion of international versus national arrivals was 80.5% coming from abroad with the remaining 19.5% living in Portugal. The leading international countries of origin were the United Kingdom (13.1%), Spain (11.3%) and France (11.3%). These heritage sites also received substantial numbers of Brazilian, North American, German, Italian, Russian and Chinese visitors.

As a means of dynamically boosting the activities ongoing at the National Palaces of Pena, Sintra and Queluz and attracting new audiences, in 2017 Parques de Sintra staged yet another annual Classical Music Season with the cycles “Musical Evenings at the Palace of Pena “Reencounters – Musical Memories of the Palace of Sintra” and “Nights of Queluz – Tempest and Galanterie”, that attracted audiences totalling 2,289 (a total not included in the visitor numbers).

According to the President of the Parques de Sintra Board of Directors, Manuel Baptista, this sustained rise in visitor numbers directly interrelates with the restoration work undertaken in the meanwhile. “We believe that restored heritage is visited heritage. Parques de Sintra thus carries out constant improvement works on the parks and monuments under its management not only through conservation and restoration work but also through the continued efforts to endow better visit conditions”.

In 2018, the objective is to render continuity to these goals. “Work on the sites under our management shall never be over and, as such, we have already set out an ambitious investment plan for 2018 and for the two subsequent years”, he highlighted.